Ponting 'totally for' rotations

Ponting totally for rotations - Yahoo7

Former captain Ricky Ponting has defended Cricket Australia's much-talked about rotation policy, saying it is 'impossible' for fans to expect the country's best players to play all the time.

Ponting who scored 13,378 runs in a 168-Test career for his country decided to walk away from the game in November just weeks before his 38th birthday.

Speaking to ''Fox Sports'', the Tasmanian stood by the use of rotation by the selectors in recent Test and one-day international fixtures.

"The rotational thing...I'm totally for it," Ponting said.

"The people who are making these decisions are making them for the right reasons and they are making them for the betterment, they think, of the team and the individual players there and then at the time.

"Most of the guys in this current team now are playing all three forms of the game. And they are playing IPL (Indian Premier League) and they are playing Champions League (Twenty20 tournament). They are playing a lot of cricket.

"I can understand the public...would be a little bit disappointed that our best players aren't playing every game but I really think it's impossible to expect that our best players do play every game."

Ponting believes an 'educational process' could be put in place to let sponsors, media and fans know who will be playing in each game before match-day to give them as much notice as possible.

He also backed the likes of David Warner, Shane Watson and Phil Hughes to deliver on upcoming tours of India and England in the absence of himself and Michael Hussey, who both retired this summer leaving Australia desperately short on experience.

And he sang the praises of captain Michael Clarke who he believes holds the key for Australia in a difficult 2013.

"What's evident now is that we really need Michael Clarke to continue playing the way that he has this season," he said.

"He's taken his game to another level, a quite extraordinary level really and we need him to keep leading from the front with the bat."

Since retiring from his duties with the Australian Test team, Ponting who will continue to play domestically - has starred for the Hobart Hurricanes in the Twenty20 Big Bash League.

He scored 236 runs at an average of 39.33 in the BBL and was nominated for the best player in the competition, eventually won by Melbourne Renegades captain Aaron Finch.

He enjoyed his taste of cricket in Tasmania and that has increased his desire to achieve a long-standing goal.

That is to win a title for Tasmania, with the four-time Allan Border Medallist who played in losing Sheffield Shield and Ryobi One-Day Cup finals with his state last season revealing he may play on if he cannot achieve the feat this year.

"I really enjoyed the Big Bash," he said.

"It was probably the most I've actually enjoyed Twenty20 cricket anytime I have ever played it. (On my future) I just want to see how I feel at the end of this season.

"I think the Tigers are either second or third on the Shield table (third) and I had a chance to play in both the Ryobi Cup final and the Shield final last year. We weren't quite good enough to get across the line.

"It'd be nice for me to be able to play in a winning title for Tasmania. If that doesn't happen this year then I'm sure there will be something inside me saying 'you should play one more season'."